4 Simple Steps for Social Media Brand Consistency

Successfully running your social media accounts in a way that generates engagement, conversions, and helps you meet goals is one thing. Running these accounts consistently with your brand is another. While consumers love to see new and interesting content, that doesn’t mean you should venture so far that your posts become unrelated to your brand. If anything, this confuses your audience and will push them away - especially if they feel they’re seeing content they didn’t follow you for. Part of branding is the identity of your company and how it is perceived by the public. The more familiar consumers are with your brand, the more comfortable they are trying new products or purchasing from you at all. Listen, we aren’t asking you to be entirely predictable and lose the interest of customers. You still have a world of possibilities in what you can do with your brand and its content, but keeping it consistent to the right degree will keep consumers invested without being thrown off. As a result of this, staying on brand, relevant, and in line with your goals is a must for proper social media management. It’s easier to do than you may think. Now that we’ve established why brand consistency on social media is important, here are 4 simple steps for putting it into action.

1. Plan and Schedule Content in Advance

Luckily for us marketers, there are plenty of applications and programs that can help you schedule and plan out your content in advance. Social media management isn’t a “figure it out as you go” kind of process--at least not if you want to maximize its potential. It’s important to step back and view your planned content as a whole to make sure it all fits together in a logical and interesting way. This is especially important for marketing campaigns and will allow you to view it from your audience’s perspective. This will also take a lot of the stress out of planning marketing campaigns and coming up with original content. Even scheduling the next month’s posts and viewing them as a whole will show you simple oversights like if there are too few posts, too many, or if the posts are scheduled too close or far apart from each other.

2. Communicate The Same Message Across All Social Platforms

Consistency doesn’t just mean posting similar content on one platform. Communicating the same brand message across all of your social media platforms will create a sense of continuity and a stronger understanding of your brand. While platforms like Instagram and Twitter, for example, will require different content, communication styles, and even post frequency, your brand should still be easily recognizable. Simple things like keeping the same profile picture across your accounts can accomplish this. Many brands have a more aesthetic approach to Instagram and a more casual, conversational approach to Twitter. This is great because it takes into consideration the social environment of the different platforms, but your brand message and what you’re seeking to accomplish and communicate should ultimately stay the same.

3. Maintain The Same Look, Feel, and Aesthetic

As mentioned before, platforms like Instagram are often used for a more aesthetic and visually pleasing appeal. However, you should remain consistent in the chosen look and feel of your brand across all platforms as well. Imagine if Coca-Cola had a red logo for their Instagram page, but a blue logo for Twitter, despite the color blue not being one of their brand colors. Doesn’t that sound confusing? Aspects of branding and digital promotion like these can feel like obvious guidelines, but it’s easy to become overzealous and stray from your brand’s core image in favor of switching things up. We aren’t saying you should be afraid to switch things up--just make sure you dip your toes in the pond before performing an unintentional, botched, rebrand of sorts by diving head-first into the water.

4. Measure The Success of Your Content

We’ve all heard it before, but that’s because it’s important--measure your success! Today’s social media platforms have the ability to track, record, and relay vital analytics and data in regards to your content. This isn’t something you should overlook or push aside. Keeping up with these numbers can tell you a lot about your progress. Social media analytics is more than just views and likes. This kind of data can tell you things like what time of day your posts receive the most engagement and interaction; therefore, they allow you to begin consistently posting at that time. Put simply, analytics make the unpredictable, predictable. Plus, no one likes feeling that their timeline is being suddenly silent or spammed by your account. The best thing you can do is figure out the right times and frequency to post. Remember to stick to the routine that works best for your brand--consistency is key.

Ready to Step Up Your Social Media Brand Consistency?

While the last thing you want to do is bore your target audience, providing them with a sense of familiarity with your branding will strengthen relationships as well as the way your brand is publicly perceived. Planning and scheduling your content in advance will make it easier to keep everything coordinated and view it as a whole rather than as individual posts. Think of it as a puzzle--all the pieces need to fit together properly! As long as you have a thorough understanding of your brand’s message and identity, it shouldn’t be a difficult task to make sure you’re communicating and portraying the right image. Remember, even selecting an aesthetic for your brand can make a huge difference. Lastly, don’t forget to track and take note of the data you receive from these platforms. It can tell you what’s working and what isn’t; therefore, allowing you to make the necessary changes or alterations to your strategy. Keeping things consistent across platforms and social media posts isn’t too hefty of a challenge, but digital marketing strategies, in general, are. Lucky for you, Perfect Imprints is equipped with the right tools, experience, and expertise to make this process as smooth as possible. If you are ready to create brand consistency through your social media outlets, contact us today!